roberts and a jam-packed agenda with nonstop new developments coming out of washington this morning. we begin with break news, nbc news learned that general david petraeus has volunteered to appear before the senate intelligence committee on capitol hill tomorrow for a closed hearing. these new developments coming just two hours away from president obama's first news conference since his re-election victory. a moment when an incumbent about to be sworn in for a second term would be expected to outline his goals and agenda but it's likely to be dominated by headlines surrounding two of the nation's highest ranking military general, petraeus and general john allen. let's refresh the details. general john allen is denying any and all allegations of an extramarital affair and any other wrongdoing. his nomination as commander of nato remains on hold but continues to lead in afghanistan. the white house expressing confidence in his ability to do so yesterday echoed by two members of the president's cabinet today. >> no one should leap to any conclusions.

no one should leap to any conclusions here. general allen is doing an excellent job. >> general allen is a distinguished marine and commander who's been an important part of the nato isaf mission in afghanistan. >> and this morning nbc news is confirming a connection between general allen and jill kelley, the florida woman who kicked off the original fbi investigation which revealed the affair between general petraeus and his biographer paula broadwell. the newest twist, nbc confirming that broadwell e-mailed general allen first from the handle kelley patrol warning him about jill kelley painting her negatively. "the wall street journal" reporting that she tried to stop the fbi investigation that she started. this is news that nbc has not yet confirmed, however, we have been able to confirm that kelley called police over the weekend claiming to be an honorary consul-general and citing diplomatic protection in an effort to get the media including nbc off of her property.

>> i'm an honorary consul-general so i have inviolability so i should -- they should not be able to cross my property. i don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved, as well. >> video taken by nbc shows diplomatic plates on her car. south korean authorities say she is an honorary consul and the state department says it has no connection to kelley. >> i can assure you that she does not work for the state department and has no formal affiliation with the state department. >> okay, let's take you straight to d.c. and kristen welker is standing by. any indication from the white house this morning, any murmuring about how the president will address the situations with petraeus and allen today? >> well, good morning, thomas. first of all, i think that you are going to see president obama get a number of questions about this situation. everything from his initial reaction to how this was handled by the fbi.

so first to the point of his initial reaction, if you take white house press secretary jay carney's briefing yesterday as a guide that gives you a sense that president obama will likely talk about that fact that he was stunned. he'll likely also thank general petraeus for his service to the country and also express his continued support of general allen while this investigation is ongoing. in terms of this other big question that lawmakers have been talking about quite a bit, this question of when president obama was informed about the entire situation, i think that you will hear president obama essentially defer those questions to the fbi. essentially not question the fbi's handling of this situation. that is what i expect. anyway, thomas, based on carney's briefing that we heard yesterday. this is such a stunning situation, because, remember, this is the last thing that president obama was expecting to talk about during his first press conference, what he intended to be focusing on, the fiscal cliff, pressuring congress to work together to get a deal done so i think that you will also hear some questions about the fiscal cliff, we expect president obama's sort of

opening offer to congress to be $1.6 trillion in new revenues including increasing taxes on wealthy americans and larger corporations. having said that, thomas, i think that the overwhelming majority, i shouldn't say the majority but he'll get a lot of questions about the petraeus situation. >> a lot of people watching this today. kristen, thanks so much. you can watch the news conference live right here on msnbc 1:30. i want to bring in our panel. we have ruth marcus, columnist for "the washington post," keith boykin, cnbc contributor and hogan bidly who served as communications director for rick santorum's presidential campaign. great to have you here and ruth, petraeus now testifying or will be testifying on capitol hill. does this bring it all back to the original story and the attention and focus where it needs to be about what happened in benghazi, the loss of four american diplomats and away from this salacious sexual scandal. >> i think you answered your own

question. i say this with a bit of regret and also a bit of humor, as between dealing with serious substantive questions whether it's benghazi or the fiscal cliff and salacious sexual scandal, i know which we think is going to get the attention and especially this story which is developing into some combination of real housewives of centcom meets "homeland," it's just too sordidly delicious not to have us spending, us in the immediate yashgs spending some time figuring out what in the heck was going on here. i do have to say i really think there are a lot of important questions to be dealt with at the news conference beyond the petraeus matter. there's not a lot that the president can say or add to it. i know there's going to be some questions, but, please, can't we drill down on the fiscal cliff which is really a lot more important for the country? >> one thing, though, and, you know, with petraeus back on the schedule to testify again it's closed but hogan, the white house has stayed largely out of

the petraeus fray and our own chuck todd saying on his show this morning that the obama administration doesn't really see petraeus as their guy. he served in multiple administrations has the backing of a lot of republicans but with him now testifying before the senate intelligence committee tomorrow is this where the white house could start to feel more the heat? >> absolutely. i mean, look, he was somebody else's pick but he did serve as somewhat of a sense of continuity for the administration serving multiple posts under the president. i would imagine most of the press corps will want to talk to the president and get him on the record about some of these issues. the attorney general of the united states along with the head of the fbi were investigating david petraeus for six months and the president didn't know about it? that's going to be a very interesting and hard-hitting question to put before the president then when petraeus goes before congress to discuss benghazi, i imagine some of these questions might come up again and people will try to get them in some type of cross fire amongst each other and there will be plenty of blame to go

around no doubt but finally we are done focusing on nonsensical issues around the election, small issues, we're going to begin to focus on big issues like the fiscal cliff but what happened in benghazi to take four americans' lives? that's important. a lot want to know about it and in the next coming days we'll be sitting on the edge of our seat waiting for the answer. >> people want to know about that but as we look at this, this cast of character that's merged from the petraeus situation including petraeus, general allen, jill kelley, paula broadwell, we are a war-weary nation but these men have overseen our troops, allen seeing 68,000 of our troops. there is a tipping point here where people are going to get angry to know what the back story is. >> i think so. i think ruth is also partly right when she says there's a sex scandal salaciousness that makes it appealing to the public and media but at the same time there are bigger issues. i think the fiscal cliff is an important issue that should come up at the press conference. this issue with benghazi, overly

politicized by republicans during the campaign, now we can finally get real hard answers and talk about appointments. susan rice is an excellent candidate to be secretary of state and i think that john mccain came out just today and said he was opposed to her nomination. i don't think that's a fair statement because susan rice was simply following the advice from general petraeus who john mccain says was a hero so there's a great deal of inconsistency in the republican messaging that needs to be answered. >> mccain's biggest obstacle is the fact she went on the sunday talkers and talked about the video that -- >> and she was following the talking points given to her by general petraeus of cia. how can you say that petraeus is a hero on the one hand but susan rice who is following general petraeus' talking points is not. >> the president has his first press conference coming up in just a couple of hours and as we have been highly aware, the fiscal cliff is certainly going to be a big conversation but can the president get the focus where it needs to be when it comes to the fiscal cliff especially when we have people

like paul ryan giving interviews saying he's showing back up in washington, d.c. pretty much the same way he left? >> well, there is clearly a huge division between the two parties on two questions. whether we should raise revenue/how much revenue we should raise, the white house put out a fairly audacious, if not bold number yesterday of 1.6 trillion and the second question which president didn't quite address on friday which i expect to be asked about today, which involves can that amount be done without reverting back to letting the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest expire? i do want to say one quick thing about general petraeus and the investigation. i think it's a completely phony issue in response to what hogan said about whether the president should have been told earlier. the one thing we learned about all scandals from watergate on, what you don't want is the

justice department in a very sensitive investigation back-channeling to the white house and telling them about criminal things, i think, if it had gone the other way, the republicans or other critics of the president would have been yelling about why was attorney general holder scurrying to the white house to tip them off about this? so i think that's just a kind of silly issue. i think it was probably appropriate for the justice department not to loop the white house in until it had a resolution. >> hogan, i do want to talk about paul ryan and again bringing up this interview he gave to jonathan karl over at abc talking about what his plans are when he gets back to washington, d.c. and about this election and whether or not the president getting a second term was a mandate. take a listen. >> does barack obama now have a mandate? >> i don't think so because they also re-elected the house republicans. so whether people intended or not, we've got divided government. >> so you don't think there's a mandate here. >> i don't because then they would have put nancy pelosi in charge of the house of

representatives. see, i think these ideas that we talked about, i think they're popular ideas. this is a very close election. >> hogan, people are going to look at this and wonder why is paul ryan still clofrping around on the same cement shoes that tanked his bid on the romney ticket and heading back to d.c. after it was a mandate that the nation spoke and put the president back in power? >> i think this largely speaks to political capital. and right now the president has a lot of political capital. i don't think he should waste that on someone like susan rice's nomination where it will be met with a ton of resistance, rightly or wrongly, that's not the point. he should use that political capital to try to ram through some of the things he's been talking about on the campaign trail for the last year, but even previous to that in 2008. paul ryan makes a good point, though. i do agree. i don't think the president has a mandate per se but a lot of political capital. just depends how he wants to spend it and the republicans, if

they don't want to risk being insignificant for the next four years they need to come to the table with some honest, tough solutions and try and compromise on some issues as does the president and we can get this country moving forward. that's what's been lacking for the last four years, president obama has a well-noted disdain for the process and he has to come to the table with some of these folks and use some of that political capital he did gain in that re-election. >> the last word. >> one quick point, hogan, the majority of americans actually voted for democratic candidates, not republican candidates in the house of republicans and it's only because of gerrymandering that republicans actually have control. if you look at states like north carolina, most of the people in north carolina actually voted for democratic house members, but republicans were controlling 70% of the house seats there because of republican gerrymandering so it's not a mandate they have control of the house. >> want to say thanks to our panel. i appreciate your time and insight. move on to a new addition

called wtw. today's word is tied to the jill kelley controversy. >> honor sul-general so i have inviolability so they should not be able to cross my profit. >> inviolability is rooted in the word inviolable. secure from assault or trespass. so use that in scrapple or words with friends. more breaking news from capitol hill. nancy pelosi is staying put in her position in house leadership announcing minutes ago she'll seek another term as minority leader. >> we have work to do and i have made a decision to submit my name to my colleagues, to once again serve as the house democratic leader. >> yes. [ applause ] >> nbc's kelly o'donnell joins us from capitol hill with more on that. kelly, the reaction and is this really a surprise she would leave. >> reporter: not entirely a surprise but because she had not

given much of an inkling because her deputy steny hoyer and jim clyburn, they also had expressed interest in moving up. that was changed today. now it looks as if everything will be the same. of course, there's still an official election but nancy pelosi will continue on. ten years as the leader of democrats, first woman speaker and first woman to lead her party. she talked about having an insatiable desire to be in this political game at age 72 and after a vigorous campaign when she raised a lot of money for democrats, of course, republicans always have characterized her as a volatile political figure and often been used in advertising and so forth especially during the 2010 cycle but able to raise a lot of money this time. democrats were not able to get as many seats as they had hoped but did get a few more so nancy pelosi today saying she wants to continue and in part because there are more women serving in

the new congress, that seems to be a thread behind her thinking, as well. so that stays the same. but political conditions are changing and there are new issues to deal with and so now we at least have it set for the plans for the democratic leadership, speaker boehner also intends to stay on, so we'll be seeing some of these elections take place but the big surprise is not a surprise, she's staying put. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell on capitol hill for us. kelly, thanks so much. there is an awful lot happening from capitol hill and during what is expected to be the lame duck session i'll talk with maxine waters next. then just over two hours until the president's news conference, first one difference re-election. what do you think the first question will be? reporters asking about what? tweet me at thomas a. roberts or find me on facebook, thomas a. roberts on msnbc. again? it's embarrassing it's embarrassing! we can see you carl. we can totally see you.

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immediately after holding his news conference this afternoon president obama will meet with business leader at the white house to discuss the looming fiscal cliff. the ceos of a dozen major companies will attend. among them the heads of ibm, ge, ford and walmart and this follows the president's meeting yesterday with labor leaders and comes ahead of his meeting with congressional leaders on friday. joining me now congress many woman maxine waters. fiscal cliff was coined in the hearing last winter. congresswoman, great to have you here. white house press secretary jay carney said that president obama plans to open negotiations by calling for 1$1.6 trillion in additional tax revenue, far more than republicans are open to, willing to accept and double the amount that speaker boehner offered the president during the debt negotiations last year. also during these closed door meetings yesterday with labor leaders, the president reportedly vowed that he would,

quote, not budge when it comes to letting the bush tax cuts expire for the country's highest earners. do you think, though, with all that being said that there will be a compromise to be made? i mean the president is taking a hard line here. >> well, yes, the president certainly is taking a very hard line and that's because in this campaign, one of the things that we all discovered was the american people want everybody to pay their fair share of taxes, that message came through loud and clear. and so he has a mandate to take that kind of position. i do know, however, that he's anxious to work with the opposite side of the aisle so that we could come to some kind of conclusion that will keep us from falling off the fiscal cliff. so i expect him to be tough. but i also expect him to lead in an extraordinary way and make sure we don't fall off this fiscal cliff and keep this government going and make the kind of decisions that are going to serve all of the people.

>> congresswoman, as we see with nancy pelosi willing to stay put, mitch mcconnell staying put. harry reid and john boehner staying put. the president back in, what people would expect musical chairs. none will happen. it's the same people in the same positions and yesterday senate majority leader mitch mcconnell took to the floor and said they won't compromise. we had that interview with paul ryan with abc's jonathan karl saying it's not a mandate. they have a divided government so they'll continue with back and forth of head butting and the taxes should not be raised on wealthiest americans. are we headed just for the same old same old once again? >> i don't think so. first of all we are very pleased about nancy pelosi remaining as leader. she's done an extraordinary job in helping to increase our numbers here on the democratic side, in raising the money that was necessary for us to strengthen our hand here in the house and so she has done such a good job that we urged her to

please stay on and that experience really does count. let me just say this, there is some posturing going on and i do think that this posturing is going to perhaps come to an end at some point and that these leaders, all of our leaders know that the american people do not expect us to fall off this cliff. they expect us to come together and both sides take a little bit of a hit, do some compromising and move in the best interests of this country and i am very, very optimistic about our ability to do that no matter what is being said. >> a good compromise is where both sides leave the table not getting everything that they want so we'll see how this moves forward. congresswoman maximum even waters, thanks for your time this morning. >> you're so welcome. >> ready for the hot seat. general petraeus will testify about what he knows in that benghazi attacks. we'll hear from colonel jack jacobs and move over bradley cooper. there is a new sexiest man alive

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want to keep you up to speed on this developing story from d.c., the nation's capital that david petraeus will testify before the senate intelligence committee tomorrow on capitol hill. it was unclear whether he'd still testify on benghazi and after resigning last week over an extramarital affair was revealed, this news comes just hours before the president holds his first news conference since winning re-election. nbc news justice correspondent pete joins us. now we know this is going to move forward. >> that's right. and, you know, it's been her insistence all along and for several reasons it's understandable why they wanted to hear from him, he was the cia director when the attack happened and went to libya and did sort of a fact-finding trip and came back and had additional information all of which the

committee still wants to hear and according to our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski, petraeus himself wanted to do this and called his old colleagues at the cia and said, listen, i know they want to hear from me, i want to testify so they want to hear from him, he wants to testify so it's going to happen. it should be clarified here though, thomas, it won't be an open session. it'll be a closed session because obviously they'll be discussing classified information. >> pete, the other interesting thing we're just learning this new information about the e-mails between jill kelley and general allen and one source describing to nbc news that they were friendly, not so much of a sexual nature. we're talking about thousands of e-mails here but what more can you tell us? >> i don't think we know exactly how many e-mails there are because we've heard a wide range of numbers. it was apparently at least several hundred. what the upper end of that is i think we don't know. but, you know, people close to general allen are saying that he was just the kind of guy who would say, you know, if somebody gave him a compliment, thanks,

sweetie, thanks, dear. that kind of thing. that that was the extent of it. maybe potentially flirtatious but whatever they are, the general counsel at the pentagon has decided they are at least troubling enough that the inspector general should look and see whether the ig thinks they cross some sort of line. why the general counsel or ig think that we don't know yet but that's really the only sort of thing still being investigated, that plus the question of whether paula broadwell did violate laws on either obtaining or possessing in her home or home computer classified documents, the other last strand to be wrapped up. >> the correspondence between jill kelley and allen in some of these e-mails there is evidence that other people were cc'd like allen's wife, correct? >> well, no, not cc'd. my understanding is jill kelley and her husband had a joint e-mail account. they both used it so any e-mail sent to her would be seen by

both of them and vice versa. >> okay. all right. pete williams reporting from d.c. thanks so much, pete. i appreciate it. i want to bring in jack jacobs, medal of honor recipient and msnbc military analyst. jack, it's great to have you here. your reaction to all of this and it certainly is big news to hear that petraeus will testify. be back on the schedule to testify about benghazi to get to the bottom of that. but your reaction to the rest of this? >> well, it's pretty disconcerting, of course, we have in our minds a view of elected and pointed officials and the military establishment of enormous rectitude but we know from history that that's probably misplaced. we're mismanaging our expectations. you only have to look back to general eisenhower, president of the united states, who when he was supreme allied commander in europe running the war had an affair with his driver kate

somersby and the distribution of information back then was very much different than it is today. today instantaneously everybody knows everything and of course we get properly exercised when something like this surfaces but it's not necessarily anything new. >> because of the fact we are still engaged in afghanistan and that allen oversea, 68,000 troops basically, will and should americans be angered at thinking that there's this, you know, this back story that's emerging of jill kelley and, you know, there's important stuff going on. >> yeah, it's very disconcerting, people aught to be totally focused on what they ought to be doing. >> that we would allow our generals to, okay, you're going to -- you're going to take time out of your busy schedule of overseeing what is an active military operation to be sending back these e-mails back and forth. to a lot of us lives are at risk. people's live, families are at

risk. >> well, the two are not mutually exclusive. i mean, that is, you can have a personal life and you can be very good at what you do and as a matter of fact, both generals, both general petraeus and general allen are extremely professional and very good at what they do in their professional lives. to expect that nobody is going to have a personal life, as well, not going to sit down and think about or do secret else, i think it's a little bit too much to expect. we should expect rectitude among our highest level officials and in this case, we should be very concerned about the fact that he did do that. i don't think that had an impact on his job. >> jack, let me ask to you stand by. i'm learning senator john mccain is calling for a select committee on the benghazi attack. >> seek to blame a spontaneous demonstration for the attack in benghazi when it was later acknowledged that no protest even occurred in benghazi and that the station chief in tripoli was reporting back in the first 24 hours that it was a terrorist attack.

why did president obama insist that he labeled the events in benghazi as an act of terrorism on september 12th and then emphasized that in his second debate with governor romney and we now know that in an interview with "60 minutes" on the same day, he explicitly refused to characterize the attack this way. and he then spent nearly two weeks putting the emphasis on a spontaneous protest to a hateful video including in his address to the united nations on september 25th. why did our ambassador to the united nations in interviews five days after the attack also try to blame on the hateful video when it was clear from the earliest hours of the attack that it was sophisticated, that it was a sophisticated offensive that no protest ever occurred outside of our consulate in benghazi and if ambassador rice

was relying on intelligence assessments as she insists, why were those assessments so dramatically at odds with the earliest reports from our people on the ground? and perhaps most importantly, why does the administration still appear to this no policy to deal with the fact that al qaeda and affiliated groups have established sanctuaries in eastern libya, a country that we helped to liberate and which is an elected a pro-american government that is eager for our assistance. this is perhaps the most troubling question of all. the pattern of violent extremist activity in eastern libya was well documented by our intelligence community for months leading up to the attacks of september 11th, 2012. the threat reporting was extensive and yet the administration seems to have gotten little support. many libyan friends and partners who did not overthrow gadhafi

only to see al qaeda affiliated terrorists and militias take over large parts of their country. the american people deserve answers to these and other questions related to the benghazi attack and congress has a unique and constitutional role to play in getting to the truth of this matter as well as compiling the lessons of this tragedy so it's not repeated. ambassador chris stevens was doing everything we want our diplomats doing, he was getting outside the wire to advance america's interests and values in our increasingly dangerous world. while we want to encourage that diplomacy we want our fellow citizens who engage in this important work to know their government has taken every reasonable step to ensure their safety. for the sake of the families of those four brave americans who sacrificed their lives, they be and the american people deserve answers. the only way they'll get those answers in a comprehensive and

cohesive and believable fashion is through the establishment of a select committee. >> if we don't appoint a select committee we're going to make a huge mistake as a body. >> just listening to john mccain, that's senator lindsey graham taking to the microphone there but listening to senator mccain who has been very vocal about trying to find out and get answers to what happened in benghazi on september 11th. a loss of four american lives there. critical of ambassador susan rice as we've heard senator john mccain talk about her, colonel jack jacobs is still with me. he's calling for a select committee. it most likely will not happen. >> it's my guess too. >> but making a lot of noise to make it happen. now we have this coming on the heels of the fact that david petraeus will testify to the senate intelligence committee, however, behind closed doors. >> yeah, i don't think he's necessarily going -- petraeus

going to necessarily have very much to add to what we already know. there's little doubt in my mind and the mind of most military people the attack on the compound in benghazi was preplanned, small arms and automatic represent, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars no a concerted effort. that's preplanned and in most cases rehearsed. for the white house to say, no, it wasn't -- that it was a spontaneous reaction to a demonstration and the video was complete nonsense, my guess is the white house knew it was nonsense when they said it. why would they say it? knee-jerk reaction is deny. don't forget you're in the terminal end of a very, very difficult campaign and first reaction is to deny it. it was the wrong thing to do. this was a preplanned attack and to say otherwise is complete nonsense. do we need a select committee to investigate it? no. >> two big things are at play getting to the truth about these deaths and potential exoneration

of that truth to whoever it is, whether it's the white house, whether it's the cia, again, like you're saying whether it was just this knee-jerk reaction. >> the white house needs to do, get rid of this thing, get out and say, look, we made a mistake. we were operating on incomplete information. we didn't know what we were talking about. we were wrong. it was not the result of a spontaneous -- it was not a spontaneous demonstration. let's move on to the next thing which is really, really important. this story should go away and just about anybody with any military experience can tell you it was not spontaneous. the white house ought to just distance itself from its initial -- its initial report and then senator mccain will probably go away talking about a select committee. >> the president taking the podium in front of reporters this afternoon at 1:30. we'll have that here on msnbc, colonel jake jacob, thanks.

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if you have type ii diabetes, you should increase the amount of legumes you eat according to a new study. legumes such as bean, chickpeas and lentils can decrease the risk of heart disease in people with type ii diabetes. researchers say that legumes help with glycemic control and also can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. so it is a big week back on campus for congress and not such a lame duck session after all. right now we're in the midst of the politicking but finally the president meets with congressional lead attorneys try to steer the country away from the fiscal cliff. the $600 billion set of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that if unaddressed could send the u.s. back into a recession. now, if we do dive over this cliff, here's what could happen. first it could cost the average household about $3500 in taxes. second the economy, it could lose 800,000 jobs. and, third, for those already out of work, 2.1 million

americans would lose unemployment benefits and right now we're 47 days away from the deadline to prevent all of that. joining me from columbia, south carolina, msnbc contributor jimmy williams with more on why it matters. so, jimmy, "usa today" did this great chart that breaks it all down, the spending or these tax and spending changes go into effect, because americans across the board are going to be affected on this from the top 1% to the nation's poorest so how likely is it that this will happen? >> well, i don't think it's likely that it happens because i think both sides have a hell of a lot to lose. the president having just come off a re-election and gaining seats in the house and the senate, i think that he has political capital. he would lose a lot of that capital if, in fact, he didn't force congress to come to a deal and on the same -- on the flip side is the congress. they'd have to figure out a way to do this. wall street expects it. main street expects it. it's not just about the bush tax

cuts which by the way i think we should start calling the obama tax cuts. he extended them twice. he owns them. he has to figure out what to do with them. he put out a plan on that and so we know what he wants to do. the question is what does congress want to do? the republican-led house, the democratic-led senate. do they get it done between now and december 31st? i don't think so. because that's a hell of a lot to get done in a short period of time with holidays and all that coming about so i think they may pond it down the road, get a six-month extension and wrap it up into tax reform. >> here's the thing, you know, you have old puzzles lying around the house. i have them. you have these old puzzles trying to jam the same puzzle pieces together. they don't work so now we have all the same players that are returning, nancy pelosi is going to stay in place, harry reid and mitch mcconnell, john boehner, the president, this puzzle just ain't working. these pieces are not fitting together and we got paul ryan who is giving interviews saying

it's not a mandate, i'm going back with the same cement shoes i've always had. why should we as americans demand better from our elected officials? >> well, first of all, that's a great analogy, the idea of the puzzle pieces not fitting together. that's why you have to have a pair of scissors, i would think the congress and president need to sit down with the same pair of scissors and trim and cut and make those pieces fit together and work. if they don't then you'll see massive -- well, let me back up. it's not like congress could be at a lower approval rating of 13%. they have to figure it out and come up with a way to fix this. the bush tax cuts have to expire. the obama tax cuts have to expire. every analyst will tell you if they don't do that, we will lower growth in the coming months. we will go -- will not be good. unemployment will go up. so everybody -- they all know and need to understand this. it's just a matter of figuring out where to do it, how to do it

and when will they do it. >> jimmy williams from columbia, south carolina. great to see you. thank you, sir. we'll be right back with senator bob casey after this. ton about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row. ♪

more now on our developing story, david petraeus will testify before the senate intelligence committee at a closed door hearing about the benghazi attack. former colleague telling nbc news petraeus volunteered to testify at the previously scheduled hearing and here's senator lindsey graham moments ago. >> general petraeus has indicated he will testify before the intelligence committee that's likely to be in a classified setting, i don't know, but i do know this, that we're likely to call leon panetta and general ham and others in the armed services committee and i believe the foreign relations committee would want to hear from secretary clinton and all those who were responsible for consulate security. the problem is, that the three

committees will not be able to hear what the other groups are saying. >> joining me live is democratic senator bob casey of pennsylvania, member of the senate foreign relations committee, also chairman of the congress's joint economic committee. sir, good it to have you here. we say congratulations about your re-election but we have to dig down deep on this big story because right now, we have senator graham, we have senator mccain, calling for a select committee. they feel like they are not getting the answers they need and won't get the answers they need otherwise. what is your reaction to that? >> well, there's no question whatever format it takes we need to get answers to a lot of questions. some of that process has begun. we had a briefing yesterday in the foreign relations committee which i thought was very helpful but there's more work to be done because we have to make sure whatever the facts are here and wherever the evidence leads in terms of what those facts are about what happened and why it happened, we have to learn from this, we have to make sure we track down and hold accountable those that did this.

the bad guys so to speak. we have to make sure we're taking every step necessary to protect every embassy and consulate that houses officials of our government doing very important work as diplomats and people engaged throughout the world. we've got a lot of work to do on this and whatever form it takes we need to get answers. >> you bring up the meeting you had yesterday, the senate foreign relations committee having the closed-door hearing, general petraeus was not scheduled to testify at that ever. but in light of all that has come forward, don't you want an opportunity to ask him questions yourself? >> oh, there's no question, thomas, there's going to be -- there will be, i should say, and continues to be opportunities to do that. yesterday we heard from a whole range of folks that i thought provided some good information, new information, that i didn't have and i think others and they were both parties represented there, democrats and republicans on the senate foreign relations

committee. that was helpful, but there's more work to be done for sure. >> for the things that were helpful for you, when will it be made public so the american people can have more of an idea of what really happened. >> i think what you're going to have, what you've already begun to see is both classified closed-door briefings and exchanges, also a lot of public disclosure. there's no question that when you consider the challenges we face internationally, we've got to make sure we're taking every step necessary to protect our people. there's no way to ensure 100% security because folks who are engaged as ambassadors and other diplomats aren't going to be in place in the world that are dangerous. we have to make sure we take every step necessary and to make sure that we track down and hold accountable the folks that did this. >> senator bob casey, sir, thanks for taking time for me. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> i'm going to say thank you to make -- for making time for me. it's been a long hour.

anyway, that's going to do it. wrap things up for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow. alex wagner, please, save me from myself. you have a special anniversary edition. >> we do. >> happy one year, baby. >> thank you, baby. >> yeah. >> we do. "now" turns 1-year-old today and boy, do we have a spicy enchill lad da to celebrate. president obama gets set to hold his first post-re-election news conference and we are quite sure the first flurry of questions will not be about the fiscal cliff. how will the petraeus sex scandal impact his national security team. we'll ask governor ed rendell, john heilemann and hugo lindhgren. and reverend sharpton discusses whether the president has a mandate for reform in term two and some familiar faces return to a not so familiar capitol hill. dan rather helps us look at the next wave of leadership in congress. all of that when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. lists all done. raise the roof!

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